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Stop the week: Last word ...

Donald Regan1918-2003, aide to Ronald ReaganWhen Ronald Reagan was elected president of the United States in 1980, he nominated Donald Regan to be his Treasury secretary. Four years later Regan became White House chief of staff. It was a mistake. Regan could not get on with Nancy, the president’s wife.

All public appearances of the president had to be submitted first to Mrs Reagan so she could consult her astrologer about “good, bad and iffy” days. Sometimes world leaders waited weeks to get dates for international meetings.

Regan, a decisive man with an Irish temperament, found this most frustrating. There was some slight relief when Mrs Reagan changed gurus. “The second was less kinky than the first,” he observed.

He was forced out of office, however, in the aftermath of the Iran-contra scandal and after public disagreements with the first lady. — The Times